Bantam Bakery Will Move Into Former Rogers Site

Well-known Litchfield Organic Business Is Also Planning To Operate A Cafe

August 26, 2006|By KEN BYRON; Courant Staff Writer

PLAINVILLE — Fresh-baked bread will make a comeback in the center of town later this year when the Bantam Bread Co. moves into the former Rogers Bakery building on Whiting Street.

The Rogers Bakery closed last October after being in business for 106 years. Niles Golovin, owner of the Bantam Bread Co., said he will shift much of his operation to Plainville and plans to open by the Christmas holidays. Golovin has run his organic specialty bakery for 11 years in the Bantam section of Litchfield. He said the Litchfield location will remain open, but as a satellite of the Plainville operation. In Plainville, he will bake products and run a retail store and cafe.

Members of the Rogers family blamed both a declining market for the kind of products an independent bakery offers and the location for the closing. But Golovin sees the future of an organic baker differently, and said the fact that a business like Rogers was in the center of Plainville for so long was a good sign.

``In Plainville we have an affordable piece of property that is already an established bakery in a community that understands the value of a bakery and cafe,'' he said.

Golovin said he was in the market for a bakery property after spending five years trying to buy the old Bantam firehouse in Litchfield and started talking to the Rogers family soon after learning they were closing the bakery. Officials said it took months to line up financing for the project.

The Plainville property's location was not the only thing that got Golovin interested. The other is the 88-year-old oven in the bakery. He said he will use that oven for baking and convert it to burn fuel made from vegetable oil.

``The 1918 oven immediately grabbed my attention,'' Golovin said.

He closed on the property last week. Town officials were eager to help him and Town Manager Robert Lee said the deal will help revitalize the downtown.

``This will be a good boost for the downtown,'' he said. ``They offer a unique product that I think will bring people into the center of town who would not ordinarily come. People go a long way to buy from Bantam Bread.''

Lee said the town may offer Golovin financial assistance for improving the facade of the building.

Golovin said he bakes without using artificial preservatives or other chemicals and his products include artisan breads and pastries.